Orange Is The New Black Season 1: Some Thoughts

I actually need to catch up on the last seasons of Weeds but I do like that show- so when I found out that it's creator, Jenji Kohan was making an original series for Netflix entitled Orange Is The New Black, I knew I had to check it out.   Based on the memoir and experiences of Piper Kerman, the first season of Orange Is The New Black might just beat out House of Cards and the new season of Arrested Development as Netflix's best new series yet.   So, in no particular order- some thoughts:

1.  There are more strong female roles in a single episode of this show than anything that I've seen ever.   All right, you could argue what else could happen if you set your television show in a women's prison but handled incorrectly the premise and the writing could have been horrible.  They're not.  Every prisoner has a story and you get shown tantalizing glimpses of their lives before/on the outside throughout the thirteen episodes of the first season.  (It's already been renewed for Season 2 which is awesome, especially given how this ends.)

2.  It's not 'Oz for the Ladies' either.  There are genuinely funny moments, genuinely dark moments and genuinely wrenching and touching moments.  You run the whole spectrum of emotions with this show and it's a great thing.

3.  Sorry dudes.  Not a ton of nudity either...  there are maybe two lesbian sex scenes I can think of.

4.  Kate Mulgrew, who plays the Russian in charge of the kitchen, Red damn near steals the show.  She flat out owns every scene she is in and no kidding:  I don't know if it's Emmy worthy but she should be nominated for something for her role.  She practically bristles right off of the screen into your living room.   Excellent stuff.

5.  Natasha Lyonne is also back and better than ever.   And I won't complain about Laura Prepon either.

6. Pablo Schreiber who plays the prison guard Mendez (also known as Pornstache) looks a lot like a generic, off the shelf version of Andy Samberg with his moustache.   Without his moustache, the family resemblance to his half brother Liev is kind of obvious.

7.  I like how three dimensional the characters are the evolution that each character goes through over the course of the season feels real.  Despite a racial divide (Hispanics, Old Folks, White People, African-Americans- which is explained as 'it's not racial, it's tribal' in the first episode) there's a maturity about the way this show handles points about race, gender, drugs and poverty.  They make points without being preachy and condescending a la Aaron Sorkin and avoiding overly saccharine after school special type of moments as well.

8. Good shows always leave you wanting more- and by the end of this first batch of episodes, there's enough up in the air for all the characters you love that you're dying to find out what happens next.  I like that.

9.  The other side of the prison (the guards and the management) also gets explored and there's shadiness on both sides of the equation-  the story of the guard, Bennet (Matt McGorry) and Daya (Dascha Polanco), a prisoner whom he impregnates and falls for serves as a nice bridge between the two 'worlds.'  Again- this is another example of something that, if handled badly could have been downright awful.  It's not.  Ditto with the story of Sophia (Laverne Cox), a transsexual prisoner who gets taken off of her hormones by the prison.

10.  Look, it's the lazy, crazy, downright humid and hot days of summer.  Why aren't you binge watching the shit out of this show yet?